CityLife TV – Brightly Covering the Stylish Life

The dynamic, energetic, and committed team at CityLife TV channel are sure to impress you not only with their professionalism, but also with their devotion and beauty. The charming ladies never stop taking interviews, shooting videos, and searching for the most interesting news about the luxury life. Created initially in Monaco, CityLife TV operates in Ukraine in Lviv, Kyiv, and Odesa. There are also offices in Dubai, Milan, and soon in London. Resting in hotels, eating in restaurants, hitting nightclubs, or relaxing in beauty salons – you can always find the latest news about the luxury lifestyle on CityLife TV. If you’re looking for the coolest venues, hottest events, or chic tips, then this groovy, captivating, and progressive channel is just for you. Lviv Today invited Kateryna Liubchyk, one of the hosts on CityLife TV, to tell us more about the channel and her exciting work.

Kateryna began her fashion career as a successful model, working both in Ukraine and abroad. For the last five years, she has been interested in fashion journalism and worked as a presenter for the Ukrainian Fashion Channel. She is also known for her work as a journalist and presenter and HDFASHION & LifeStyle channel. Fashion being one of her driving passions, Kateryna shoots the Paris and Milan fashion weeks as well as presents the latest collections by world-famous designers. She also covers dazzling jewelry exhibitions, glamorous parties, glitzy film festivals and auto shows, and gives tips on the latest trends in the fashion world. She often attends exclusive parties or sits in the front row of major fashion events – for this reason, she is among the best to cover Kyiv’s social life.

1.Please tell us what’s so special about your work at the fashion channel.

Well, it’s the intrigues, scandals, and fact-finding – these are the greatest specialities of working for the fashion edition on the channel. You should know about all of the latest trends in the fashion world, follow new names and new ideas. And I’m not just talking about clothes. “Fashion” also means lifestyle, so it becomes part of your life as well as a great deal of your work and leisure time, including sport, social media, charity foundations, etc. In short, you need to know a little something about everything if you want to be part of the fashion industry. Another important rule is that you must be friends with everyone! Sure, you can gossip, tell some secrets, and make deals; but when you attend a social event – you must keep smiling and take selfies with everyone!

2.How is your channel different from public television?

In the broadcasting industry, fashion television is different as it totally craves a different approach to the work. I would say a glossier approach. On a news channel, it’s very important to confirm facts via official sources and present the latest news quickly and efficiently, with beauty and aesthetics coming in second place. As far as fashion is concerned, you should put more effort into creating catchy backgrounds. For example, one time we had to reshoot an entire show from the very beginning just because some road repair workers were in the background. Fashion television resembles glossy magazines, so the images in each video must be perfectly picturesque.

3.What is the future for such channels?

Speaking about general public television, which we all have at home, I can’t see the purpose for such a format in the future. The latest trends show that a channel needs to find a target group and work for them. The task is not to attract everyone, from grandparents to children, to the screen. It’s more logical to give your “own” audience the information that is especially interesting to that group. Keeping in mind that the list of bloggers, vloggers, and YouTube channel presenters grows by the hour, I can see success for fashion channels existing not as part of public television, but as online resources. For example, our channel cooperates with the online HoReCa platform, where we cooperate to select popular restaurants, hotels, sport centres, and hotspots in the city, allowing us to connect our content to even more screens. People that go to a restaurant for dinner want to see beautiful pictures, which emphasises the place. While not many people watch the fashion channel at home, it is surely more popular in public venues.

4.Who are some of the most famous celebrities you have interviewed?

When you are deep into the clubbing scene, you quickly discover that those so-called celebrities are really quite ordinary people. One of my first interviews was with (former Ukrainian President) Leonid Kuchma at some art exhibition. I was extremely excited that evening! It was not just the beginning of my journalism career, but also such a prominent public figure! So as you can imagine, I managed to ask two questions and mumbled something in the end. Later, as I gained more experience, I interviewed many famous people from different spheres of life. I can’t say that everyone made a pleasant impression. For example, after meeting some of my favourite actors in person, I stopped watching their movies altogether! As far as world-famous celebrities go, I have interviewed designers like Donatella Versace, Alberta Feretti, Philipp Plein, the brothers Dean and Dan Caten of the Dsquared brand, and famed fashion nonconformist Jeremy Scott. For my TV show, I have interviewed well-known bloggers, models, and actors like Chiara Ferragni, Natalia Vodianova, Natasha Poly, Jourdan Dunn, and Milla Jovovich. I even once managed to take a photo of Suzy Menkes – one of the world’s most influential fashion critics and journalists – after she had fallen asleep at a fashion show!

5.What are the advantages of fashion channels for advertisers?

These channels are ideal for advertisers. Firstly, the advertising rates differ greatly from public television rates. Secondly, it doesn’t matter if you want it or not, but when you are eating at a restaurant or getting a manicure at a beauty salon, you are a captive audience – you will see the screen and the ad. Maybe you won’t be interested at first, but you will still remember the image subconsciously. And the most important thing to remember is that today those 15-second ads will never sell the goods. Nobody wants to just buy goods – people want to know what celebrities use the same goods or to see if the purchase will improve their image. People want to buy image, to become closer to the trendsetters and celebrities, to become more like their idols. From this point of view, fashion channels are an extremely important venue. These channels have no direct advertising blocks, but they have the possibility to advertise indirectly by showing what outfits celebrities choose, what makeup they use, or what coffee they drink. You just need to put the goods that you want to sell in the picture.